At Foxfire {Book 2} || Keeper of the Lost Cities

Chapter 3: No Dating

"I saw you made friends, who are they?" Sophie asked the triplets, as she gave her kids each a piece mallowmelt.

"The boy's name is Hart, when he first talked to me he called me Amanda," Alyssa giggled, thinking of her exchange with the blonde haired boy earlier that day.

Amanda laughed and bumped her on the shoulder, "I'm clearly the more memorable one then."

"Am not!" Alyssa pouted in response.

"The girl is named Kaisley, I met her in the hallway and her locker is right by ours," Emmett explained, talking over his sisters before they could get into a full bickering match with each other.

"No powers were used, correct?" Fitz asked the kids, settling into a seat to help himself to a piece of mallowmelt.

"Nope. I told Kaisley that I was an Enhancer, so she tried to get me to do my Enhancing, but I told her no!" Emmett grinned.

"Yeah, even Bryant stood up for Emmett when he was asked to show off his powers," Alyssa added in, wanting her parents to know that their cousin had their back.

"Alyssa and I used it a little bit, but just to keep the splotching balls up," Amanda admitted.

"Well that is acceptable," Sophie approved as she took a sip of her herbal drink as the kids piled their finished mallowmelt dished in the sink.

"Now here is how the after school routine is working—" Sophie started, but shortly got cut off by her kids groans, "First, I will feed you a snack, second you will do homework and don't forget we know all of the teachers so we can get your homework no matter what," Sophie warned.

"Then, you can have free time to do whatever you please. However, you mother and I suggest that you spend some time each night practicing with your abilities, it is essential that you keep them under control because you are younger than what people are used to and some are still not quite sure what to think about eleven-year-olds having powers." Fitz added in.

"Mom, will you help me with my Enhancing? I'm not sure what to practice," Emmett asked Sophie.

"Yes Emmy, I will help you," She smiled as she brushed her fingers over her son's cheek.

"I have one more proclamation!" Fitz announced, waiting until he had all three of the kids attention, "No dating!" He announced in a finalizing tone

"Why no dating?" Emmett asked.

"You three are eleven, that is too young to date," Fitz explained.

"No it's not!" Amanda argued. Sophie shot her a 'you better stop talking before you get in trouble glare' and without even having to use transmitting, Amanda stopped talking.

"Now that that is settled, homework time!" Sophie told her kids.

"Kenric, we are going to go and play in your room," Fitz smiled as he chased his youngest son to his bedroom.

"If you guys need help, I will be in my office doing Keeper work," Sophie smiled before she took off into her office.

"No dating is gonna be terrible!" Amanda whined.

"Why? Do you like someone?" Emmett asked as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"No!" Amanda protested.

"I can back her up on that," Alyssa confirmed, sticking her tongue out at her after she had finished talking.

"It's still no fair that you guys can communicate without actually talking!" Emmett whined.

"But you can—" Alyssa started, but shortly got cut off by a loud banging on the door. Sophie and Fitz both ran to the door and Sophie peered through the peephole.

"Hi Sandor, is something wrong?" Sophie frowned, knowing he would not have come banging on the door unless it was something urgent.

"Sophie, Fitz, your family needs to get into you safe room now!" Sandor commanded.

"What's wrong?" Fitz asked, stepping to Sophie's side.

"Harper escaped from Lumineria," Sandor informed them. Sophie and Fitz nodded before turning around and ushering their triplets to grab their belongings. While the triplets were grabbing their belongings, Fitz quickly grabbed Kenric from his bedroom with some of his belongings in a bag. Then, in under a minute they walked down the hall and entered their saferoom entryway through an invisible door on the back wall.

Once through the wall, they went through one more set of secure doors and made it into the safe room. The kids all sat quietly as their parents talked to one another, clearly stressed.

Normally they would have been talking through a mind link, but they knew that their kids would know something was up. The last thing they wanted to do was worry their kids more.

"We should be out there finding her!" Sophie told Fitz, looking as though she was about to head straight back out of the saferoom.

"No Sophie, we can't do that now, we can't just leave the kids here all by themselves!" Fitz argued back, trying not to stress Sophie anymore, yet to explain how irrational she sounded.

"But we can fight her together, with us and the triplets. Emmett can enhance the twins powers and we would be stronger than we've ever been before!" Sophie pressed.

"The triplets haven't had enough practice yet, they could easily lose their concentration and then they would be in even more danger," Fitz reminded her.

"Well, it's either that or we go back to living in fear," Sophie informed him, an underlying sense of urgency finding it's way into her voice.

"Sophie, you know you can't do that right now!" Fitz warned her before switching to transmitting for whatever else he had to say to his wife. Sophie's hand went to rest on her forehead as she sighed.

"I really wish you weren't, but you're right," she sighed. She leaned against Fitz, letting him hold her tightly in his arms. While Sophie and Fitz had reached an agreement, the triplets were thoroughly confused; they had never heard of anyone named Harper. The name Harper had never once passed through their parents lips up until that point. Finally out of the three siblings, Emmett was brave enough to ask,

"Who's Harper?"